Bridging the Gap
by Many Impossible Things
Summary: One-Shot "ending"-Despite all the effort and waiting, the space between them needed to be bridged.


Hello, all. So I found this in my story file today. I wrote it right after I got home from seeing Thor in theatres and decided I didn't want to wait until the Avengers for an ending. At the time, I wasn't posting stuff here, but now I figure why not put it up? Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading.

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><p>"Hello, my prince," Heimdall greeted without turning to see the approaching god of thunder. Thor came to see him every day, since the destruction of the bridge one of the few to do so.<p>

Thor sat down on the remnants of the bridge and hung his feet over the edge, looking down toward the Earth, "How is she today?"

"Her friend, Erik, left today to pursue a project elsewhere. Darcy remains with her. At the moment, she is sitting in a chair by her fire, looking at her stars. Still she searches for you." He decided it would not be prudent to inform the more than slightly lovelorn man next to him that she was becoming desperate. She did not sleep as much as other humans did and worked more. He did not mention the failed experiments that left her in tears when Darcy had gone to bed.

"Is she getting anywhere?" Perhaps desperation was not something only the mortal woman was getting. Heimdall glanced down to see the misery on Thor's face. Nowhere else did he allow it to show so freely but here, when he asked about her. It was the happiest and saddest part of everyday.

"There is hope. She seems to understand how the Tree works better than any other mortal. She will discover the key eventually."

Thor sighed, as he always seemed to at about that time in their routine conversation. However, the young god's next question wasn't routine. "How long has it been for her since I left?"

Time passed differently in Asgard than on Earth. Heimdall had yet to decide if it was different by nature or if the beings in the different realms just felt time differently. "Five months. She doesn't think it a long time. She has been studying this for years. Now," he smirked at the blonde man before him, "she simply has more motivation."

Thor chuckled before asking, "Is she happy?"

For once, Heimdall responded with perfect honesty, "Almost." He did not give Thor time to linger upon his answer before continuing, "Sif is looking for you. Apparently, she and your mother are worried about you."

"Aren't they always? Thank you, my friend." He clapped the gatekeeper on the shoulder before he slowly ambled back to the palace. Sif and his mother, Frigga, had taken it upon themselves to distract him from his well-hidden misery. Their motives were not so well-hidden. He loved them both for their concern and efforts but was tiring of them.

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><p>"Darcy! Darcy, wake up!" Jane ran into her assistant's room with pure excitement. One of her sleepless nights by the fire pit had finally gotten her somewhere. Many nights, she sat there going through her book, looking over the notes he had made her surrounded by books of particle physics, Einstein's theories, and Norse mythology.<p>

Tonight had been one of those nights. After throwing down her notes, she'd leaned back and stared up at the Milky Way. Jane couldn't understand how it was she'd fallen in love with him. She had always been married to her work. All the relationships she had suffered through since high school had been more of a punishment than an enjoyment. Dr. Donald was simply the cherry on the top of a very tall cake of failed relationships, some of which had been her fault and some not. Given Donald's persistence in sending birthday and Christmas cards despite their less-than-cordial farewell, she figured he had just been bad judgment on her part.

_He_ had been different though. She couldn't explain why. He was handsome—putting it mildly—to be sure. He had a happy, reckless, juvenile charm about him that made her laugh. He was so genuine and loyal that she couldn't help but feel the need to protect him and help him. Of course, he had a tendency to break dishes and get in the way of her car. He'd actually been more of the unwanted stray puppy that you can never turn away but will never fully take in until that night when she had sat in the exact same chair. He had explained his world to her and somehow it had explained him, too.

He had started out as the answer to an experiment. Now, he was the reason for the experiment. She couldn't explain why but she just knew she loved him. She wouldn't be whole and happy again until she was with him.

Sighing as she thought of him and stared up at the stars, something sparked in her mind as thunder rolled in the distance from unseen clouds. That had been around eleven. She'd since drawn up plans, put them into the computer and run over a hundred simulations that all ended with the same positive result now that the sun was coming up.

As Jane continued shaking her, Darcy groaned and rolled over, "Why? What time is it?"

"6:15. Come on I have to show you something." Jane all but dragged her bodily out of bed and planted her assistant in front of her computer. Darcy groaned once more before rubbing the sleep from her eyes and putting on her glasses. If Jane was this excited then she really must have made some progress. "Jane, what am I looking at?" she asked with a yawn.

"A computer simulation of a machine that would hypothetically be able to move us from this dimension to his."

"How do you know it'll be his and not the one where the frost giants live?"

She and Jane had become experts on Norse mythology in the last five months. English had been her second choice of major behind political science so she was happy with reading all the myths, poems, and legends associated with him. However, he had remained "him" the entire time. Neither one of them had yet to say his name out loud. Darcy once asked why, wondering if Jane still didn't quite believe that the man she'd inadvertently ended up in love with really was Thor, the god of thunder. Jane had responded it was because she had never called him by his name when he had been there. She was going to wait until she saw him again to finally say it.

She was pulled from her wandering thoughts when Jane began to spout off a bunch of physics terms that she recognized vaguely but couldn't process this many hours before noon. "Asgard is above us in the Tree so it's going to have a higher frequency. Those lower, like Jodenheim, are below us and will have lower. With all the measurements we took the night he fell, I could recreate the frequency to get something to Asgard. All I need is enough power to make the thing run."

Darcy really hoped this experiment was going to work. The last ones hadn't and she wasn't sure how many more could go wrong before Jane…lost it. However, as Jane gulped down her third cup of black coffee—a taste she had only acquired in the last few months—and rifled through her papers for Agent Coulson's card, Darcy knew something was different this time. Before, the experiments had been little things done in their backyard and lab.

This time, Jane was calling in the big guns. She dialed the agent's number at ten that morning. "Yes, Agent Coulson? This is Dr. Jane Foster. I was wondering if SHIELD would be interested in helping with an experiment of mine...You don't back these things? Okay, you know who might? Do you have Tony Stark's number? Excellent I'll call him today."

Yeah, there was something different about this experiment and it wasn't the elevated levels of black coffee in Jane's system. She really was onto something this time.

* * *

><p>"Loki cannot have returned, could he?"<p>

Odin shook his head at his wife's almost hopeful question while looking down at the three frost giants before him. They had been captured on their way to steal the casket back once again. Guards had intercepted them before the Destroyer had been called out. They now stood before him, two kneeling in fear and one was staring up at his remaining eye with defiance. "No, my love, I fear Loki is lost to us forever."

He turned from his wife and strode down the steps of his throne to stand beside his son. Thor stood there protectively between his parents and the enemies before him. However, the arrogant swagger was gone. Odin was forever indebted to the mortal woman who had caused this, began that change in his son. He only wished that the selflessness Thor had gained had not taken him from her. Odin stopped beside his son and asked, "Why have you come to Asgard again?"

The standing frost giant grinned menacingly with his red eyes, "To reclaim what is ours and to ensure peace."

The level voice that answered him was not Odin's but Thor's, "Why did you choose to sneak into Asgard like thieves to reclaim what you name as yours and who are you to treat with my father?"

The red eyes shifted from the father to the son, "We snuck in, like thieves as you say, because the bridge is no longer open to us. You destroyed the only way that would be deemed _straightforward_ to enter this realm. And I am Lothar, son of Leoffe. I am all who there is with the authority to treat with you."

Odin replied next, "What you call yours was lost to you long ago. Peace, however, is yours to begin. What are the terms of this peace of yours?"

Lothar raised a single blue finger and pointed it at Thor with a smile, "That he returns to his exile so that no other will ever wish to come to our realm with the sole purpose of being belligerent again. We ask for nothing more."

Frigga started forward to protest but Thor was already nodding when he saw Odin defer to him, "If it will ensure the peace, then I will return to Earth, once I find a way. As you mentioned, I destroyed the only way to get to Earth."

Lothar grinned again, "We have the time. As soon as you are gone, no frost giant will ever set foot into Asgard unasked again. Agreed?"

He held out a frigid blue hand that was no longer steaming with cold. Thor stretched out his own and shook it, "Deal."

Odin nodded, "Very well, the peace has been-."

"Wait!" Frigga finally burst forward, very harried and practically livid at this point. She was _not_ losing her only remaining son forever! "Must he remain in exile forever? I don't care about your peace, this mother is not agreeing to never again see her son when she can help it."

Whilst before Lothar had been openly and easily defiant, he seemed to blanch before the angry mother. When he looked to the two gods at her sides, they looked just as hesitant to disagree with her. The result would be akin to stealing a mother wolf's pup. Lothar did not come to Asgard to be torn limb from limb by Odin's wife. The giant struggled to retain his menace for a moment when he responded, "Fine. He can visit once in the cycle of seasons. Is that to your approval, my lady?"

She let out a deep breath, "Very well. Thank you, Lothar. You are one of the wiser of the kings of your realm." She turned and made to leave the chamber when two guards rushed in, barring her exit.

"My king, Heimdall has need to see all of you!" one of them declared but a clear sense of urgency. Heimdall rarely summoned people to him, especially of late, but when he did one could count on it that something very important was going on. Thor's thoughts immediately jumped to Jane, wondering if some tragedy had befallen her. Grabbing both his parents' hands, he was airborne immediately, not caring if it was impertinent.

They arrived moments before the guards did with the Lothar, followed closely by Sif and the "Warriors Three" as Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun referred to themselves when in jovial, usually inebriated moods. Odin was about to reprimand his son but the look of fear in the normally carefree blue eyes stilled him. Perhaps his son had hidden the depth of his feelings for the mortal woman better than he'd expected.

Heimdall answered his question before Thor could articulate it. "She is fine for the moment, I promise you. Yet, I felt you should be here to see this." The guardian turned to Thor with a rare smile, "You found a very smart one, Thor." Realizing why Heimdall had summoned them, Thor's face broke into a huge grin.

"Heimdall, what have you summoned all of us to see?" Odin asked, wondering when he was going to get to the point.

"To witness the answer to your problem, my king. Thor needs to return to Earth in order to ensure the peace…and to be anything resembling happy." He pressed on before Thor could try and deny that, "Jane Foster just found a way to make that happen, I believe. Watch."

Heimdall raised his sword from the bridge and lightly tapped the rainbow-colored surface below their feet before returning to his normal pose. The surface shimmered like light upon water for a moment before a scene from Earth began to play before them. For the first time since leaving her, Thor heard Jane's voice and saw her face.

He could've kissed Heimdall at that point.

I'm the only scientist who is ever going to be crazy enough to do this, Jane thought to herself as she walked toward her machine and upturned her face to the sky. She wasn't sure if she really needed to yell or not. He had but then again he'd been in a hurry. She decided upon a firm, speech voice…that was completely negated by the hesitancy of her words. Then again, the guy had to get that all the time.

"Umm, Heimdall, if you're up there could you please get…his help and let us know how this turns out…"

"Jane, this is so mean! We can't send him first!"

"Darcy, come on. I know I'm a horrible person but he's going to be fine." She narrowed her brown eyes at the reluctant Darcy behind her.

Her machine—if that was really the right term—was built, experiment ready, and all she needed now was her test subject. Agent Coulson and his associates were safely behind the Plexiglas shield behind the controls. The sun was climbing in the New Mexico sky on a cloudless morning at the site where he had come to Earth.

"Darcy, we kept him for this purpose, now hand him over."

Darcy pouted as she slowly stopped hugging her hat so tightly. "But why do we have to send him first? What if it doesn't work? What if he freezes to death in Jodenheim? This is so mean!"

Jane groaned, "Darcy, I know. Okay, I am the scum of the earth and I know it. I don't want to send him first but we have to."

"I could go. There are hot guys in Asgard. I mean _he_ was from there, right?"

Jane sent her assistant a level look, "There's no Facebook in Asgard."

From where he watched upon the rainbow bridge, Odin frowned and asked his son, "What is Facebook?"

Frigga sighed, gesturing to her enraptured son, and whispered, "He cannot hear a word you're saying, my love."

Odin looked over to find she was right. Kneeling beside the scene before him with smile on his face, Thor did not seem to realize they even existed anymore.

"But I don't want you to send Odin." A little one-eyed puppy barked happily at hearing his name and poked his head out from Darcy's stocking hat. He licked her hand and barked again.

Jane had to fight a laugh, "If Heimdall hears that and tells him that you named our stray puppy Odin, I am going to hurt you, Darcy."

"But he's so cute!"

Darcy wasn't wrong. Aside from missing an eye, the little black puppy was very friendly and insanely cute. He also had the energy of a _pack_ of puppies. It seemed that half of Darcy's job anymore was making sure 'Odin' didn't break anything. Jane just smiled, hands on her hips. She knew it was going to work this time. She just _knew_ it. Under other circumstances, she wouldn't even consider using a dog as a test subject but she was too sure that he could be fine not to.

Raising her voice higher in pitch, she called, "Come here, Odin. Do you wanna get in the machine and go see your badly-chosen namesake? Hopefully if he finds out, he won't smite us. Come on!" The puppy barked and trotted over to her, sitting obediently in the machine as she closed the little door.

She looked heavenwards again and shouted, "If he gets there and is okay, some lightning or something would be great. If he gets there and isn't okay, some rain would do it."

Darcy shouted as well, "Hey, if he gets hurt, I'm going to take Meow-meow from you again!" Jane could see his smile and hear his snort of laughter in her mind.

Jane smiled, feeling all the more confident. Grabbing Darcy's arm, she pulled her assistant back to the controls and flipped the power switch. With a blinding flash of multicolored light and an impossibly fast vortex that rose toward the heavens, Odin the puppy had vanished.

Seconds after they saw it vanish at their feet, a small, black, one-eyed puppy appeared with a flash at the feet of Heimdall. He barked in bewilderment once, then put his nose to the ground and began smelling everything. He came to sit at Odin's feet and barked expectantly. Odin shrugged as Frigga picked up the pup, "Well, he is rather cute like me."

Smile still engulfing his face, Thor strode to the end of the bridge and raised his hammer. Electricity crackled as he began to swing it with all his might, sending bolts as far as he could toward the other realm.

Jane and Darcy looked toward the sky expectantly. For a moment, nothing happened. Since he was unable to return himself, Jane suddenly wondered if he had the ability to send a storm. She hadn't thought of that before. In her haste to see him again, she'd forgotten about that possibility. She accepted the experiment as a failure for a split second before a sudden storm arose from nothing in the middle of the desert.

She couldn't help but join Darcy in screaming happily and jumping up and down as they knew he had heard them. Lightning began to flash around them and Jane hugged Darcy quickly. "Stay here!" she shouted as she pushed the button and ran toward her machine. Tall metal poles drew the lightning toward it, channeling their electricity into the power she needed to maybe, perhaps, _hopefully_, transport herself to the other realm.

However, Darcy was right behind her and squeezed into the machine just as the door shut. "I'm on Facebook too much anyway!" Jane grinned as light enveloped them and they both screamed as they became the first human beings to ever leave their dimension.

Agent Coulson turned to his superior officer beside him and answered the question he knew was coming, "No, sir, she didn't tell us she was going to do that."

Darcy scrambled to her feet, immediately drawing her Taser like John Wayne in an old western. Her eyes widened and her face paled as she looked around herself and realized that there was no way she was still on Earth.

"Darcy," a familiar deep voice said with amusement, "if you Tase me again I'm crushing your iPod with Meow-meow."

Her hand fell limply to her side, Taser dropping to the ground, as she looked at not just him but Odin and Frigga and Heimdall and a frost giant before her. No amount of myth reading could prepare her for this. Then she caught sight of Asgard in the background and the sky containing both day and night.

Her mouth dropped open, "Oh…my…GOD!"

Righting herself with the help of Heimdall, Jane rushed past her assistant with a smile, "Get your own. Thor is my god."

Dropping his hammer beside him, Thor caught the Jane that came flying toward him with both arms. He held her to him, breathing in the slightly charred scent of her hair and coffee, that wonderful drink they had on Earth. She had buried her face in his neck for a long moment before she emerged, giant smile on her face.

Thor returned it and asked, "So, is this how you normally look?"

Jane laughed, "It's a good look, isn't-"

He cut her off by raising one of his hands to her hair and fiercely kissing her. For the length of a breath, she stilled with surprise before smiling against his lips and returning the gesture, wrapping her arms more tightly around his neck.

"Thor…" Frigga attempted to get her son's attention to no avail. Shaking her head slightly, she smiled as he and his love continued to unwittingly rise into the air. She hadn't seen him that happy since he'd gotten his first horse. Then he'd risen about a meter in the air before falling back down. He and Jane were now hovering close to twenty meters above them.

"THOR! This mortal is attempting to steal your hammer," Odin yelled. Darcy froze where she was dragging Meow-meow with both hands to hide it behind herself, looking fearfully from god to god.

He and Jane parted with surprise. She squeaked with fear and held tighter to him, now seeing how high she was above a waterfall that fell into an unknown abyss of the cosmos. When his grip tightened around her waist, she returned the broad grin on his face. "So, shatter-proof cups and ceilings are a must with you?"

"You love me and you know it."

"True." She leaned forward and kissed him again before he dropped them back to the bridge. After putting Jane down, he turned to Darcy.

"May I have it back now? I promise you your iPod is safe."

The dark-haired woman stepped aside for him to pick it up. She gave him a quick hug before tossing something in silver wrapping toward him. He grabbed it out of the air with one hand and sent her a puzzled look. Smiling, Darcy explained, "I brought you some pop tarts. I knew Jane wouldn't stay if her machine worked."

"Where are the rest?" he asked innocently, realizing as he ate them in about three bites that she had only brought two.

Darcy rolled her eyes, "You're such a man."

"A god, I thank you."

Smiling back at him as he intertwined his fingers with Jane's, Darcy replied, "I liked you better as a crazy homeless guy."

"The crazy part has yet to be disproven," Sif replied with a smile as she and the others from Asgard became noticed once again.

Jane blanched as she realized that Odin and Frigga, Thor's immortal parents, stood before her. They were slightly more intimidating than Donald's parents…

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><p>"So, you're telling me that Thor <em>has<em> to come back to Earth and you were waiting on my experiment to work?" Jane tried to contain her glee at being guaranteed that Thor would return with her. She knew that Asgard was his home and all his loved ones were there but for that one beautiful moment she allowed herself to be arrantly selfish.

"Yes, though you had impeccable timing, Jane," Odin replied as he and his son's love walked about the palace of Asgard. He had just explained the conditions of the peace proposed by the frost giants and how she was involved. The happiness that couldn't be contained at the thought of being able to have Thor return with her settled all of the father's possible doubts. His son was in love and the woman before him loved his son back. He no longer feared losing him. "How soon can you be able to recreate your technology here?"

"A few weeks, though I might need some help powering it."

"We will do all in our power to assist you. You are welcome here whenever he returns, Jane Foster. I have always wanted a daughter and now I have one. I know his mother always did as well." Jane paused for a moment before a small smile spread across her face. She had just been approved of by the all-father and it felt wonderful.

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><p>"Thor," Jane groaned as she pulled her unused pillow over her head that rested on her fiancé's arm, "it's your turn to take care of the dog."<p>

His arm tightened around her as he sleepily shook his head, "He's Darcy's dog."

In unison they shouted, "DARCY!" She yelled back unintelligibly about something that sounded like sun wasn't up yet. Odin hopped down and trotted out of the room, still barking loudly. Groaning together, both Jane and Thor rose from their bed and made toward the door. Odin was excitable by nature but he was also an impeccable guard dog. Perhaps something from his namesake had passed onto him because he always seemed to be able to sense when people were coming to the door before they had even turned down that street.

As his drowsy owners stumbled their way toward him, Odin sat with a gargoyle-like stance before the tinted glass door. Not a limb twitched as it would have if he needed to be let out. No, he just knew that someone was coming. A moment before Jane and Thor reached that door, the doorbell rang. Odin began barking once more.

"Tony, what're you doing up before noon?" Jane asked with drowsy amusement when they had answered.

Tony Stark smirked back not only at his friend Dr. Jane Foster but also the look on Agent Coulson's face. He looked…aghast. Before them in the doorway stood Jane in what he assumed was Thor's black t-shirt and a pair of pajama shorts that could barely be seen. The gigantic blonde man next to her could only be Thor. Tony was a self-confident guy and looking at the god in only a plain pair of dark blue sweatpants made him want to slink away to the gym for a few years.

He and Jane had become friends while she worked on her project to travel to one of the other eight realms. Being a physicist himself, he had been able to provide some valuable insight as well as money. Pepper and Jane had become fast friends, as well, ensuring Jane would be around a lot. Her six week disappearance from the face of the earth—literally—had been scary but her return with her boyfriend two weeks prior had taken a large worry off their chests. He had yet to meet her Thor in person until now, however. By the amused grin on the man's face, Tony had a good feeling about him.

"Coulson here wanted me to start having a more regular sleep cycle by having some sort of world-threatening villain come up. He needs to give your god here his spiel on the Avenger Initiative."

Coulson glared at Tony, "I need to highlight classified in the dictionary for you. This is why I wanted you to stay in the car."

"I thought we'd gotten past the babysitting days," Tony laughed. Turning back to Jane, he continued, "Pepper wants you to go up to Malibu today if you can. She's gonna get a little lonely, I'm betting. Hi," he offered his hand to Thor for the first time, "Tony Stark. That's Agent Coulson, whom you know. Rhodey, Bruce Banner, Hawkeye, and the captain over there."

Thor smiled his heartbreaking grin, "Thor Foster." Tony raised an eyebrow so the god continued, "We decided that God of Thunder was too conspicuous a surname."

"I see what you mean. Now, if you two would go get dressed, Thor and I are gonna fly you and Darcy back to California and then Coulson can finally get to give his speech before he explodes. It's time to go play."

An hour later, most of which had been spent getting Darcy out of bed, Jane found herself on Tony's ocean view porch looking up at Thor with worry. She couldn't help but return his smile as he absently twirled Meow-meow and caused a wind to rise around them. Laughing with a shake of the head, she reached up on her toes and kissed him good-bye. "Be careful out there, god of mine. I love you too much for you to get yourself into trouble like Tony."

Kissing her again, Thor rose with final comforting words of, "I love you, too. Don't worry, I had my pop tarts this morning."


End file.
